Albert Fromenteau

Afrom, Alef

(March 61916 - 7 January 1988, Belgium)

Albert Fromenteau, an artist from Liège who sometimes used the pseudonyms "Afrom" or "Alef", started his illustrating career in 1938 by creating two painting books. During World War II, he worked for the publisher Charles Gordinne (Chagor), where he illustrated various comics and books for children. From 1941, he produced stories with characters like 'Hercule Petit-Pois', 'Boulou', the cat 'Romuald' and 'Pouss-Pouss', which he mostly signed with Alef.

During the same period, he was contacted by Paul Nagant to work at the C.B.A. animation studios, where Eddy Paape worked with Jacques Eggermont at the time. Fromenteau accepted and made a comic adaptation of one of the studios animation films, 'Un Mauvais Rêve de Bobino', published by Fromenteau's publisher Gordinne. Nagant wanted Gordinne to finance his animation projects, and showed the publisher some samples of an American animation film, and pretended it was produced by his studios. Disgusted by this deceit, Fromenteau promply ended his collaboration with CBA and returned to Gordinne.

Gordinne offered him to begin an animation studios of his own. There, Fromenteau produced cartoons featuring the fox 'Wrill'. Wrill subsequently got its own magazine, published by Gordinne from 1945. For this periodical, Fromenteau made comic adaptations of his 'Wrill' cartoons, as well as some other stories like 'Pouss-Pouss' and 'Cric et Croc'. In 1946, Fromenteau cancelled his animation activities and in the following year, he began a collaboration with another new magazines published by Gordinne, Cap'taine Sabord. For this magazine, Fromenteau made new stories with 'Wrill' as well as 'Cric et Floc'. In the late 1940s, Albert Fromenteau also quit his comic activities and returned to work in the field of communication.